Latest news with #KatieOyan
Toronto Sun
30-05-2025
- Politics
- Toronto Sun
PBS suing Trump administration over defunding
Published May 30, 2025 • 2 minute read An entrance to the Arizona PBS offices in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix is seen Friday, May 2, 2025. Photo by Katie Oyan / AP Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. PBS filed suit Friday against President Donald Trump and other administration officials to block his order stripping federal funding from the 330-station public television system, three days after NPR did the same for its radio network. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In its lawsuit, PBS relies on similar arguments, saying Trump was overstepping his authority and engaging in 'viewpoint discrimination' because of his claim that PBS' news coverage is biased against conservatives. 'PBS disputes those charged assertions in the strongest possible terms,' lawyer Z.W. Julius Chen wrote in the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. 'But regardless of any policy disagreements over the role of public television, our Constitution and laws forbid the President from serving as the arbiter of the content of PBS's programming, including by attempting to defund PBS.' It was the latest of many legal actions taken against the administration for its moves, including several by media organizations impacted by Trump's orders. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. PBS was joined as a plaintiff by one of its stations, Lakeland PBS, which serves rural areas in northern and central Minnesota. Trump's order is an 'existential threat' to the station, the lawsuit said. A PBS spokesman said that 'after careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television's editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.' Through an executive order earlier this month, Trump told the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and federal agencies to stop funding the two systems. Through the corporation alone, PBS is receiving $325 million this year, most of which goes directly to individual stations. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. PBS, which makes much of the programming used by the stations, said it gets 22% of its revenue directly from the feds. Sixty-one percent of PBS' budget is funded through individual station dues, and the stations raise the bulk of that money through the government. Interrupting 'a rich tapestry of programming' Trump's order 'would have profound impacts on the ability of PBS and PBS member stations to provide a rich tapestry of programming to all Americans,' Chen wrote. PBS said the U.S. Department of Education has canceled a $78 million grant to the system for educational programming, used to make children's shows like 'Sesame Street,' 'Clifford the Big Red Dog' and 'Reading Rainbow.' For Minnesota residents, the order threatens the 'Lakeland Learns' education program and 'Lakeland News,' described in the lawsuit as the only television program in the region providing local news, weather and sports. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Besides Trump, the lawsuit names other administration officials as defendants, including Education Secretary Linda McMahon, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. PBS says its technology is used as a backup for the nationwide wireless emergency alert system. The administration has fought with several media organizations. Government-run news services like Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are struggling for their lives, The Associated Press has battled with the White House over press access and the Federal Communications Commission is investigating television news divisions. Toronto & GTA World Columnists World Crime
Boston Globe
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Public broadcasting, RIP?
At my public middle school in Arizona, I was taught Intelligent Design, which is a pseudoscientific alternative to evolution more akin to creationism. I was told that humans did not 'come from monkeys,' and that to think so was insulting. An entrance to the Arizona PBS offices in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in Phoenix. Katie Oyan/Associated Press PBS was the only educational channel I could watch at home, and while I was mostly interested in the kids' shows, I also tuned in to the National Geographic specials, where I watched experts discuss things like animal biology and evolutionary theory. I realized that PBS was making a better case than my teachers. Advertisement At the end of the school year, I moved to a rural ranch in the Pacific Northwest. At 13, I was fully in charge of my own education. I had one American history textbook and access to a shared desktop where I visited Khan Academy — and where I watched PBS. Without these resources, I would have resorted to scrounging for answers on Google or various social media sites. I had no digital media literacy, and doubt I would have been able to distinguish science and analysis from conspiracy and misinformation. I had few adults to guide me. My brother was listening to Joe Rogan. I lived with relatives who were climate-change deniers, one of whom was a state representative. They owned every National Geographic going back to the '60s, but told me to disregard most of what was written inside them. Advertisement The other reading material was the 'Left Behind' series about the biblical End Times and 'Hank the Cowdog.' Without PBS, I probably wouldn't have found trustworthy, or easily digestible, educational materials at all. The Trump Administration's latest efforts to cut federal funding for broadcasters like PBS and NPR would have jeopardized my ability to learn on my own, and for free. My story isn't unique. Sixty percent of all PBS viewers are in rural America, and roughly the same portion are low-income. When I was a child with limited resources, PBS was the only reliable education I had, especially as the adults around me failed. Good riddance, CPB By There have been plenty of loud protests about the Trump administration's efforts to cut spending on health care, scientific research, and public schools, and some of these are legitimate. But the outcry over its attempts to Public broadcasters like NPR and PBS are no longer the kind of necessary public goods President Lyndon Baines Johnson Moreover, public funding makes up only a fraction of NPR and PBS's budgets. Federal funding makes up Advertisement The headquarters for National Public Radio in Washington, D.C. Charles Dharapak/Associated Press If they're so essential, people are likely to pay for them through memberships or donations, allowing them to survive on their own. Trump's executive order directed the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and all executive agencies to cease funding NPR and PBS. Congress has already allocated $535 million to CPB for this fiscal year. These cuts are fundamentally different from the Trump administration's attacks on basic scientific research, which And why should the government fund highly politicized media, anyway? Johnson promised a public broadcasting that would be 'free, and it will be independent and it will belong to all of our people.' But outlets like NPR belong to liberals. Don't take my word for it — take NPR's. The outlet's former senior editor Uri Berliner If NPR wants to be a liberal outlet, better do so on its own dime. So don't let the other misguided Trump cuts mislead you about this one. It's a win on many fronts. Less government spending. Less taxpayer-supported news poorly masked as unbiased public broadcasting. And a step toward restoring trust in the media. This column first appeared in , Globe Opinion's free weekly newsletter about local and national politics. If you'd like to receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up . Advertisement Rebecca Spiess can be reached at
